Fulk
A medieval personal-name surname from the old given name Fulk, meaning something like “people” or “folk” in its oldest Germanic sense.
The #7,001 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 64,524 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Fulk is a surname formed from the medieval personal name Fulk, which came into English through Norman French forms such as Fulco, Fulk, and Fouke. The deeper Germanic root is usually linked with a word for “people” or “folk,” seen in Old High German folc / volc. In surname use, it originally meant “son of Fulk” or more loosely “descendant of someone named Fulk.”
History
This is one of many surnames that grew out of a popular medieval forename, and the historical record shows a wide range of spellings and related forms. The name was brought to England by the Normans and appears in early medieval records, with later variants spreading into forms such as Folk, Fulke, Falk, and others. The surname is still found today, though usually as a relatively uncommon family name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Medieval scribes recorded this name in dozens of spellings, which is why related surname forms can look surprisingly different today.
From the historical record
“FokM, Foggg.— BapL 'the son or Fulk,' wbidi has a great many variants ; v, Folb and Fulke. Pake* de BrUDtc B. Wllklmu Feygii, 1379: P. T. Yorki.”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances